The museum’s annual Art Party is an fun-filled opportunity for visitors and members of all ages to receive free art instruction and experience a host of activities throughout the museum. All art supplies will be free so that attendees can try their hand at making unique works of art, including painting, sculpting, sketching, ceramics, and printmaking. This free day will also feature a special performance by the San Gorgonio Ballet (at 11 a.m.), storytelling for children (from 1-3 p.m.), docent tours of the museum (all day) and special screenings of Pixar short films in the museum’s Annenberg Theater. Ben and Jerry’s ice cream will also be served.

Art Party is one of the museum’s Free 2nd Sundays, generously funded by the H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation, The Coeta and Donald Barker Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation and Wells Fargo.

Continuing through May 12, 2011Cal State Fullerton, Begovich Gallery
Fullerton, California New York based, Cuban born artist Manuel Pardo creates intricate figurative drawings of stylish women that he limns using Gelly Roll pens filled with glitter. The centerpiece of this show is a group of forty 12 x 15 inch drawings of fancily attired and coifed women that are inspired by 1940’s fashion shots, pop culture and cartoons. Each woman wears an elegant gown, large, dramatic jewelry and elaborate make-up. Echoing the stylized attire are settings that combine 1930’s glamour with colorful Matisse-like patterns on patterns of overstuffed, overly decorated rooms. Pardo is paying homage to his self-sacrificing mother, Gladys, who moved here from Cuba to give her children a better life. The artist says, “I give her everything she did not have in real life: elaborate hairdos, fancy designer dresses and lavish surroundings all placed in the time period where she would have enjoyed them.”

The exhibition also features four 40’s style dresses and gowns, designed by Pardo, made just for the show. One gown, “Trust,” has a repeated pattern of a blowjob, and is dedicated, Pardo explains, “to housewives everywhere who were at the mercy of their husbands’ fidelity.” The dramatic installation enhances the work with angled, painted walls, stage-type lighting and a 20-foot high reproduction to scale of a Pardo drawing.

The first Desert Writers Expo will be held 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 25 at the Rancho Mirage Public Library, 71-100 Highway 111. The event is in partnership with the Palm Springs Writers Guild.

Forty selected writers will be featured in the library’s community room representing a wide variety of genres. Readers can come to the free event to meet with writers, purchase books and have the personally signed, and support the Coachella Valley’s writing community.